Bramber Trailers ???????

[Jackwabbit]

I’m looking for other people’s opinions of Bramber boat trailers; I have my own opinion based on the experiences we have had but I’m trying to find out if this is a one of experience or whether other people have the same opinion as myself.
I’ll start by telling you all about what we have & the experiences we have had.
In January this year we picked up a new Humber Assault 5.5m Rib with a Suzuki 70hp 4-stroke engine, all on a new Bramber RG2/650 rollerglide trailer.
This trailer is designed to carry 650Kgs, the boat should weigh 250Kgs, the engine 150Kgs, so with fuel, A frame Anchor & all the other odds & sods this should be within the limit of the trailer.
The second time we used the boat one of the Wobble Roller spindles snapped while towing, sending the rollers flying down the road. After contacting Bramber they sent me a new spindle free of charge, which arrived within a couple of days.
A few weeks later this new spindle was bent & starting to show signs of cracking, I contacted Bramber again this time asking if the trailer should have a keel roller as well as the Wobble Rollers.
They agreed a keel roller may be of benefit & sent me a new spindle & a keel roller; again these were free of charge & arrived within a couple of days.
The next problem we had was when winching the boat on the trailer; the boat rolled back off the trailer, the lock on the winch would not lock into the gears. On close inspection the side plates on the winch were so thin they had twisted out of shape. Again I contacted Bramber, their response this time was “Humber must have ordered the trailer with the wrong winch & they would sell me one that would do the job or get back in touch with Humber to get a replacement”
I decided to get & new stronger winch locally.
We have had lots of problems with the breaks locking & sticking, but with it having ALKO hubs & bearings we need to get replacement caps before we can take hubs off to have a look. This now has to be done before we can use the trailer again because the breaks are only working on one side.
Coming back from Cornwall on Saturday, part of the frame to stop the boat coming forward snapped off the winch post at the weld. It was a good job I had straps on the back of the boat to the trailer, as well as straps & chain from the front of the boat to the draw-bar & a couple of straps over the tubes. Because while going down hill I had to break & could see the boat coming forward about 6” when the bracket snapped.
2 hours later I was back on the road after a local recovery firm managed to get the trailer back to their place & weld the broken bit back on.
Now have I been unlucky with this trailer or have other people had similar problems ?

[gingercoastie]

I have had my Bramber trailer for over a year now and have had no problems yet!

[ashbypower]

Sorry to hear of your problems. I would do NO more, other than contact humber and seek a replacement, stating that the trailer supplied is clearly not for purpose.

Good luck

Brian

[geoff]

I would look into the weight of your boat. We have a Ribcraft 5.85 with a Yamaha 100 on the back and weight of boat plus trailer plus fuel etc etc is 1.3 tonnes. This makes it just over 1 tonne for the boat. The weight will go up if you, like me, chuck all your kit in the boat when travelling. We took ours to the weigh bridge at Morton in South London to get the whole rig weighed.

[Jono]

I've got a Bramber trailer (also supplied by Humber) and think that the ALKO axles are not really suitable for boat trailer use. As you have found out you need to replace the dust cap AND (on my trailer at least) technically, the hub nut is a one-shot nut so should be replaced every time you take the hub off. The bearings are “sealed” for life and pressed into the brake drum assembly, so cannot be stripped and greased. They are not “water proof” believe me…..
Next trailer I buy, I want old-fashioned technology that you can maintain properly.


Oh…and first time I towed with it, the brake cable fell off…

[Jackwabbit]

I have just had a look around the web and noticed something interesting.
Bramber advertise this trailer as having 16 rollers, ours was supplied with only 12, 4 at the back & 2 at the front on each side.
The Snipe equivalent to carry the same weight has 24 rollers, 8 at the back & 4 at the front on each side.
This begs me to ask the question, did Bramber supply the wrong trailer or did Humber order a lower spec trailer in order to make more money out of me ?
Looking at their prices both trailers cost approx £1500, & this is the price we paid.
Having had Snipe trailers before without any problems I know which way I will go in the future.

[woot]

Bought a combo from humber last year including a bramber trailer (RG2 590). Have had no problems so far although most of my launches have been local so have done very little towing milage.

[ashbypower]

Originally Posted by Jackwabbit

I have just had a look around the web and noticed something interesting.
Bramber advertise this trailer as having 16 rollers, ours was supplied with only 12, 4 at the back & 2 at the front on each side.
The Snipe equivalent to carry the same weight has 24 rollers, 8 at the back & 4 at the front on each side.
This begs me to ask the question, did Bramber supply the wrong trailer or did Humber order a lower spec trailer in order to make more money out of me ?
Looking at their prices both trailers cost approx £1500, & this is the price we paid.
Having had Snipe trailers before without any problems I know which way I will go in the future.

Definatly a case of "Not FIT for Purpose" As I said Back to Humber! before any warranty expires.

Good Luck

Brian

[Alex Brown]

I have the bramber rg2/950 trailer which has been great for what's nearly 2 years now (can't believe I've had the rib that long already!!).

I get brake problems when idiots walk through the boatyard and pull up the handbrake, but that's trivial really and more of an annoyance than anything.

The 20 wheels on the trailer are spot on, no matter what orientation they are in (leaning in or out), when putting the boat on the trailer they always level off immediately. Similarly, the setup I had from Humber was spot on too with the balancing excellent on the front end for both the winch and the position on the trailer in general which makes launch and retrieval pretty easy.

However, a few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the seals on the right side brake cable had snapped - shouldn't be a problem thought me, but I had to check that everything worked anyway.
I think probably the seal has been broken a good many months (picture attached), so water seems to have penetrated the cable inside the tube, and rusted it solid to the outside. It's only happened on one side, which leaves me with one brake and potentially a jack-knife situation if I had to brake hard on the main road while towing.
To me, this isn't a fault of the trailer by any means - more general wear and tear, but it's going to have to be fixed before I can take it on the road next anyway...... Thought I'd just mention this as a potential safety issue incase no one else has noticed or had this before

-Alex

[timboli]

I did my sums with weight and worked out it should be within limits for an unbraked trailer-280 for the boat,167 for the outboard,50 for plastic tank,battery and extra seating,600 payload trailer,when I weighed it,it was 740 kg with no fuel so ended up buying a braked trailer.
I have an Admiral now which seems fine but a friend had a Bramber for his Cornish shrimper,and lost the wheel on one side twice,once in France,he had to have a stub axle flown over and again in Devon as the new Bramber axle failed!

[Jackwabbit]

If this works it should be a couple of pictures of the broken part before it was welded back on a bit lower down.

[Rupert Bear]

I found that you could buy the same trailer for around £300-400 less if you bought it elsewhere.
I ended up buying a Snipe and taking it with me when I went to collect the hull. Total cost for a multi 24 roller with keel rollers, spare wheel and clamp, upgraded cast hitch, two spare hubs, tie downs, tub of grease and spare bolts/fixings and other odds and sods about £1150.

[Jackwabbit]

Originally Posted by Rupert Bear

I found that you could buy the same trailer for around £300-400 less if you bought it elsewhere.
I ended up buying a Snipe and taking it with me when I went to collect the hull. Total cost for a multi 24 roller with keel rollers, spare wheel and clamp, upgraded cast hitch, two spare hubs, tie downs, tub of grease and spare bolts/fixings and other odds and sods about £1150.

That looks a good price, was it a braked trailer or un-braked ?
& where did you manage to get it at that price ?

[Rupert Bear]

The trailer was only £980 inc vat, the other hundred and fifty or so paid for all the accessories and spares.
I just phoned around playing each dealer against each other till I got the best price and bought it from FYM in Grangemouth.
It is unbraked, brakes if you don't need them are a major pain in the rear.

[Jackwabbit]

Originally Posted by Rupert Bear

brakes if you don't need them are a major pain in the rear.

I know what you mean, but because this is towed behind normal saloon cars its nice to have the extra braking sometimes, especially when going down some of the hills in Cornwall last week. Humber did try to sell us a trailer without brakes for £1000, saying it was within limits & ok if we had a 4X4 perhaps we would have gone this way.

[Rupert Bear]

I DO have a 4x4

[timboli]

Originally Posted by Rupert Bear

I found that you could buy the same trailer for around £300-400 less if you bought it elsewhere.
I ended up buying a Snipe and taking it with me when I went to collect the hull. Total cost for a multi 24 roller with keel rollers, spare wheel and clamp, upgraded cast hitch, two spare hubs, tie downs, tub of grease and spare bolts/fixings and other odds and sods about £1150.

My first unbraked admiral -2 swinging arms and sixteen rollers,no spare wheel but with locking hitch-cost me a lot less then that new,PM me if you want details,it was under a year ago so I shouldnt think that they have gone up much.

[Rogue Wave]

This thread has quite surprised me as I thought that bramber had a good reputation but some of these pictures. I have to admit to being a bit of a trailer anorak and keep checking out trailers to see what nifty feature they have built in, how well they are made and how cleverly designed etc.

The trailers that over the years have consistently impressed me are REBA or RIBA trailers from Belgium (burp) does anybody have any adverse info on these.

I think boats manufacturers don't really give a damn about trailers thathey supply with theboats. A mate of mine bought a new trailer with his new Ribtec (well he was a mate up until I wrote this anyway) and the trailer they supplied him with is too short for the size of the boat IMHO. Also its got a very flimsy bracket that the jockey attaches to. urggh

[Alex Brown]

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

This thread has quite surprised me as I thought that bramber had a good reputation but some of these pictures. I have to admit to being a bit of a trailer anorak and keep checking out trailers to see what nifty feature they have built in, how well they are made and how cleverly designed etc.

Yeah, we get quite a few boats with various types of trailers passing through locally, and I nearly always have a close look to see what's different in each case like the winch placement, boat placement on trailer etc... Some are good, some are bad - I wouldn't put Bramber in the bad though, and would definately buy another one if/when the time arose.

The only thing that concerns me however is the sealed wheel bearings which are meant to last ages - I can assume that that would be in ideal conditions where you drop the trailer in for 30seconds, winch boat on, and whip back out quickly again, but I may be wrong. I don't tow the boat long distances (the only long distance travel was from Hull to Milford nearly 2 years ago) so I have no idea when I will need to replace these bearings. At a guess, it'll probably be around the 3 year mark whether they're grumbling or not.

-Alex

[Jono]

Originally Posted by Alex Brown

so I have no idea when I will need to replace these bearings. At a guess, it'll probably be around the 3 year mark whether they're grumbling or not.

-Alex

Guess again..... mine lasted .. ooo.. let me see..... 4 months... ya can't strip and lube 'em see...